The agency Fitch lowered the rating of Greece

AFP - The rating agency Fitch Ratings said Friday it lowered the rating to three notches from the long-term debt of Greece, Athens has denied a penalty as not taking into account its commitments to intensify recovery efforts economy.

This degradation, preceded in January by a notch down from the Greek notes, to "B +" cons "BB +" reflects "the extent of the challenge" facing the country to implement the tax reform agenda and Structural necessary to reduce its debt and deficit, Fitch said in a statement.

"Further austerity measures are needed to fulfill the objective of a deficit reaching 7.5% of GDP in 2011," partly because of lower tax revenues than expected, "she says.

The decision "does not take into account the additional commitments that the Greek government has already taken to achieve its budget target in 2011 and accelerate its privatization program," responded the Greek Ministry of Finance in a statement.

The ministry said that these new measures, including guidelines were unveiled in mid-April but that Greece had to strengthen and clarify under pressure from its creditors EU and IMF, should be announced shortly, usually in early next week.

The rating agency said its new note incorporates its expectations of new grant "substantial" from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in the country.

This additional loan of 110 billion made in May 2011 is currently under discussion, given the likely inability to return the country to raise capital on schedule in 2012.

Fitch believes that such an extension would eliminate the prospect of a "soft restructuring or reshaping" of the Greek debt would amount to an agency by default.

The new Fitch degradation brought Greece into the speculative grade "countries that do little security for repayment," according to the classification established by the agency.

The rating of short-term debt was maintained at "B".The prospect of these two notes is "negative", which implies that the agency does not lower them further over the medium term.

The agency announced this degradation while long rates Greeks beat a new record on Friday, rising above 16.5%, after breaking the taboo until then prevailing in Europe about the prospect of a debt restructuring Hellenic .

If the option of a discount is excluded, the rescheduling is now posed, including the leader of the finance ministers of the eurozone, Jean-Claude Juncker, despite the firm opposition of the Bank European Central Bank (ECB).

Creditors of Greece, however, are unanimous in requiring it more austerity measures, as well as the acceleration and intensification of a privatization program meant to deflate the debt relating to the country 50 billion by 2015 .

Even before the sanction of the agency, the Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, had highlighted its determination to follow these injunctions: "it is time to go faster, everything must be done and everything must be done now, "he said in Parliament Friday.

Fitch Ratings was the latest rating agency to tilt in January of Greece in the category of debt issuers "rotten" ("junk bonds"), saying that despite "significant progress" in the country to reduce its deficit public, it still faces "significant effort" to regain the confidence of borrowers.